Everybody that looks at Germany knows it has a complicated structure, that same is valid for its news world.

The third most popular/respected newspaper in the world, after the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal is the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. It is own by a Foundation to guarantee its independence. This is however not the biggest daily broadsheet.  That is the Sueddeutsche Zeitung with about 440.000 printed issues.  

The Sueddeutsche is being printed out of Munich. There are also a number of other very strong regional newspapers. (Leipziger Volkszeitung, f.e)

But as it becomes obvious, Germans leading newspaper never came out of the capital. (unlike Britain, or France. Is there another European Country where this is the case?)

There are of course the Berliner Zeitung, the Tagespiegel and the Tageszeitung (as well as the Neues Deutschland - the PDS newspaper) all out of Berlin. however, they lack the distribution of Sueddeutsche and Faz.

In 1987, Robert Murdoch made him chief editor of the "today". One of his first activities there was to change an article reporting about the Labour Party's opposition against Murdoch's takover into an attack on the critics of the deal.

In 2003, after he had bought the Belfast newspaper "News Letter", he showed up in the editorial office. He is said to be the author of the leading article "Put the Pride back in Protestant", in which he encouraged his fellow Unionists who were disappointed by too many concessions to Irish nationalists.

Apart from his history of interfering with editorial affairs of his publications, Montgomery is being criticised also as an economically unsuccessful, uninspired manager. "Looking back on his career, it seems that Montgomery does not know any other discipline than cuts and savings." He managed to rehabilitate the Mirror-Group, but when challenged by Mordoch in a price war in the 1990s, he was helpless. It is interesting to note that the investors of Trinity-Mirror forced him to step back in 1999.

As it seems to me, there is enough reason for the Berliner Zeitung to be sceptical about this deal.